Telecommuters' numbers growing
By Furniture Today Staff -- Furniture Today, January 23, 2005
High Point — In the past, it's been difficult to distinguish the reality of telecommuting projections from the wishful thinking. A variety of technology interests and lifestyle advocates all have been predicting that telecommuting's day is right around the corner.
As with most things, the change has been more gradual than the soothsayers promised, but there does seem to be evidence that it is truly happening.
According to statistics recently released by the U.S. Census Bureau, nearly 4.2 million people worked at home in 2000, up from 3.4 million in 1990. This 23% increase in home-based workers ages 16 and older was double the growth in the overall work force during the decade. The Census 2000 estimates represent people who reported they usually worked at home, meaning they worked there more than anywhere else.
The Census Bureau's numbers for 2000 are trumped by more recent research sponsored by the International Telework Assn. and Council. ITAC, through research conducted by The Dieringer Research Group, found that the number of people who telecommute or work at home during normal business hours almost every day was 8.8 million in 2003 and 12.4 million in 2004.
For the purposes of the SOHO furniture business, the exact numbers aren't as important as the fact that home-based work continues to be a growing trend. When the bubble burst on the Internet economy four years ago, SOHO sales took a hard hit, and more than a few would-be players at retail and on the supply side decided to leave the game.
The rate of SOHO activity may never match the late-1990s boom in personal computers, but the category's fundamentals remain strong, as shown by the telework statistics from the Census Bureau and ITAC.
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